People are roasting a bizarre government memo claiming the Trump administration is 'building wall and building wall quickly'

U.S. workers are seen next to heavy machinery while working on a new bollard wall in El Paso, Texas, as seen from the Mexican side of the border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico September 26, 2018.
Reuters/Jose Luis Gonzalez

A press release from the Department of Homeland Security is drawing online ridicule for its outlandish claims about President Donald Trump's border wall, and its simplistic language.

The document is titled "Walls Work," and features images of newly constructed steel fencing.

"WE ARE BUILDING THE FIRST NEW BORDER WALL IN A DECADE," the first line reads.

Twitter users began weighing in Wednesday with caveman comparisons.

Twitter users seized on a bizarre press release from the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, which makes dubious claims that the government is building President Donald Trump's long-promised border wall.

"WE ARE BUILDING THE FIRST NEW BORDER WALL IN A DECADE," the first line reads. "DHS is committed to building wall and building wall quickly. We are not replacing short, outdated and ineffective wall with similar wall. Instead, under this President we are building a wall that is 30-feet high."

It continued: "FACT: Prior to President Trump taking office, we have never built wall that high."

Critics immediately pointed out the memo's outlandish claims and oddly simplistic language, and began weighing in on Twitter with jokes and caveman comparisons.

The administration has built 31 miles of fence

Though the difference between the terms "wall" and "fence" may be up for debate, the memo's claims that the government has begun building or has already built parts of the border wall are inaccurate.

The Trump administration has not begun constructing any structures that resemble the concrete border wall Trump had described throughout his presidential campaign.

Though the government last year commissioned several companies to create prototypes for the wall, some of which are concrete, no construction is underway on walls or fencing that make use of the prototype designs.

Instead, the government has been carrying out a number of construction projects to replace or strengthen existing fencing along the US-Mexico border using steel bollards— hollow steel rods spaced slightly apart.

Trump wants $5 billion to build his wall

Construction workers check a new section of bollard wall in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, as seen from the Mexican side of the border in San Jeronimo, on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico April 23, 2018. Reuters/Jose Luis Gonzalez

Congress has also refused to provide funding for Trump's wall, authorizing only $1.6 billion to fund "pedestrian fencing" and replacement barriers in areas like the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, and San Diego, California.

The topic of funding the wall came up on Tuesday in a raucous, on-camera debate between Trump and Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in the Oval Office.

The Democrats urged Trump to have an honest discussion about the wall, accusing him of mischaracterizing how much of the wall has been built.

"It's not transparency when we're not stipulating to a set of facts and when we want to have a debate with you about saying we confront some of those facts," Pelosi said.